Youth tied to cabbie assault

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 12, 1999

1999-08-12 04:00:00 PDT ECTSGE: SAN FRANCISCO -- A juvenile has been arrested as a suspect in the shooting of a San Francisco cab driver and police were seeking three other youths.

The unnamed juvenile was arrested Tuesday evening as he walked along Northridge Road in Hunters Point, only two blocks away from where cabbie Shiraz Ali, 49, was shot and wounded Monday afternoon, said Lt. William Darr.

Because the search for the three other juveniles was continuing Wednesday night, Darr declined to give the arrested suspect's age or how police identified him as one they wanted in the shooting.

"We still have suspects outstanding and we're doing what we can to facilitate their arrests," Darr said.

The arrested youth, who was also wanted on a prior unspecified offense, was booked into juvenile hall on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery, Darr said.

While he would not say to what extent the youth was involved in the shooting, Darr said investigators were confident that he was involved. He described one of the suspects police were looking for as "directly involved." Darr refused to elaborate.

The shooting occurred Monday after Ali, a San Jose resident who drives for Luxor Cab Co., picked up four youths in front of 195 Kiska Road near a private gym in Bayview-Hunters Point. The youths told him to take them down Reardon Road, a dead-end street. That's where the shooting occurred.

Ali was shot once in the back of the head with a small-caliber gun, police said. A witness told police that he saw juveniles flee the cab immediately afterward.

Ali survived the shooting and was listed in fair condition Wednesday night in San Francisco General Hospital after being taken out of the intensive care unit, said a nursing supervisor.

Ali was the third cabbie in San Francisco shot while on the job. The previous two shootings were fatals. On Tuesday night, the City's taxi commission approved a pilot program intended to make being a cab driver safer. The program will place a digital cameras in a dozen taxicabs. The cameras will take pictures of passengers and instantly transmit them to a central computer.&lt;